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Paper abstract:

Kömei throat-singing is an attribute of neotraditional Kazakh music that fuses the sounds of revived folk instruments with Western popular music styles. A vocal practice not historically documented among Kazakhs, kömei was introduced to Kazakhstan from the Altai region of southern Siberia at the beginning of the twenty-first century and has since been reconfigured as a national sound, emblematic of the Turkic nomadic origins of Kazakh culture and spirituality. This paper traces the history of the kömei revival in Kazakh music, asking: What forces have propelled its proliferation from a creative borrowing by one musician to a prominent feature of a local music scene? How are we to account for this new musical development that draws from a practice with no traceable roots in the indigenous culture but originating among kindred ethnic groups and claims to restore an ancient tradition in a distinctly modern format of world music creativity? In a culture replete with regional styles of epic recitation and sung poetry, what is the appeal of this imported vocal practice as a sonic icon of indigeneity? The paper examines the current global circulation of kömei discussing contesting meanings ascribed to it by musicians, scholars, and audiences in Kazakhstan and beyond. Drawing on Mikhail Bakhtin’s (1981) concept of chronotope, I argue that, by invoking a Turkic sound and spiritual world in new forms of creativity, contemporary artists strive to expand the temporal and spatial horizons of Kazakh music and thus project a vision of a nation both connected to its ancient roots and attuned to globalized modernity.